The Paris Agreement and the IPCC’s Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C have raised global awareness of the necessity to achieve decarbonization, i.e. net zero GHG emissions. It is increasingly recognized that a transformation of socio-economic systems is inevitable if a decarbonized society is going to be achieved. Carbon pricing has attracted widespread attention as an effective policy instrument for achieving a decarbonized society, but only a limited number of studies have focused on how carbon pricing can contribute to such a socio-economic system transformation. This paper discusses research direction for carbon pricing studies from the viewpoint of both the role of carbon pricing in achieving such a system transformation and the potential impact of such a transformation on carbon pricing.

About four years have passed since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by member states of the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit. Local governments and private enterprises in Japan are seeking ways to achieve SDGs, and these efforts are spreading throughout the country. This paper discusses the possibility of solving social problems by bringing about synergies between the expertise and knowledge of stakeholders in SDG efforts, as well as the role to be played by academia in such situations. It also explains prospects for future trends in this regard.

Access to and benefit-sharing of genetic resources (ABS) has long been a controversial topic in international discussions centered on the Convention on Biological Diversity. With the Nagoya Protocol being adopted and coming into effect, as well as ABS Guidelines taking effect as Japanese domestic measures, discussion on this topic is now shifting to reexamine its significance and specific implementation measures. To provide social scientific foundations for future international and domestic ABS policies, this paper sets out the prospect for potential research issues in ABS by introducing trends of earlier legal studies in Japan and examining previous economic studies in terms of the economic theory of genetic resource utilization, economic valuation of genetic resources and genetic resource utilization by firms.